The Pella School Board held a legislative forum prior to their regular meeting Monday.

Guests were District 40 Republican State Senator Ken Rozenboom, Republican Jon Thorup and Democrat Ann Fields, who are vying for the open Iowa House District 28 seat, and Republican Dustin Hite running for House District 79. Two of Hite’s opponents, Libertarian Nicholas Ryan, and Democrat Samantha Keith were not in attendance. Superintendent Greg Ebeling presented information regarding Pella Community Schools that indicated staff were underpaid, and that given several years of historic 1% salary increases teachers they were falling behind the rate of inflation as their careers advanced. All candidates empathized with Ebeling’s concerns, but Rozenboom suggested that compared to other states Iowa teachers are doing quite well, and their raises had increased faster than the private sector. Rozenboom, Thorup, and Hite told the board that given budget constraints, it would be difficult to increase salaries. Fields said she would work for a 4% increase in salaries, and pay for it by shutting down corporate giveaways and tax breaks that produce no significant value for Iowans.

When asked about vouchers–or diverting public money to private schools, Fields, Thorup and Hite said they were against it. Rozenboom said he was for it, but didn’t think such an initiative would pass in the legislature.

After the legislative session ended, the board went into regular session, and approved a student trip to the national FFA convention. They also approved the 2017-18 Limited English Proficient application and a request for additional spending authority from the School Budget Review Committee for excess costs for serving English language learners. The request was for $21,878.